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Moving to Hk confused.com

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  1. #11

    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Gold Coast Marina
    Posts
    17,934

    I like Sai Kung and think you would find it fine. However, the word "village" has different meanings to different people and I do not see "villages" when I walk through Sai Kung (as I do quite frequently). I see urban sprawl with very ugly houses and often weird configurations. So don't be surprised if you find it less appealing and more ugly when you get here - it's better than most of HK! Your budget seems plenty to find a house.

    Other options where there is a sense of community - the other obvious one that springs to mind is Discovery Bay. Not sure what the commute time from there is to TST - probably the best bet is actually two ferry's, bizarre as that might sound! But there is a strong community of expat mothers over there.

    Gold COast also has an expat community - very diverse nationalities and lots with young children. Here you would get a beach house (well, technically one floor of a beach house) with your budget. 30 min commute to TST on the resident bus in the mornings (only two departure times though, but there are other options).

    The best advice is to come and see. Go and spend some time in Sai Kung and suss it out. Travel around, walk around, talk to many agents, get a feel for the place. Even there one village will the different from another. Take every agents website with a pinch of salt - they all lie and doctor photos - get a serviced appt for a couple of weeks when you arrive and travel around.

    Good luck. It's a great place to come - not without issues as you will find, but a really exciting expat destination with a good community to join.

    dear giant likes this.

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Kent, England
    Posts
    6,728

    Yes, we also had a different idea of what a village would be like!
    Definitely best thing is to come over, rent a serviced apartment and explore before committing to anything.

    carang likes this.

  3. #13

    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Sai Kung
    Posts
    8,561

    moving, i think you are walking through a different sai kung than the one in which i have lived for the past 5 years.

    sai kung town, is just that, a town.

    outside in the surrounding mountains and valleys and along the seashores are the villages. except for a few villages, like sha kok mei, that are within a 5 minute walk to "town", the rest would require some type of transport. from where i live, all the way to "town", a 15 minute drive, there are villages dotted along the road.

    very different to "urban sprawl" you describe.

    to the rest of your post.... *like*


  4. #14

    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    6,076

    To be honest though, many "villages" in the NT are an atrocious sprawl of unplanned building, with a two-foot gap between houses and no planning for access, sewage, drainage, etc. I had to search long and hard to find an NT village I felt was habitable.

    dear giant and MovingIn07 like this.

  5. #15

    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Lancashire, UK
    Posts
    25

    Ahh thanks for your replys, we are looking at this move as an adventure and we are very excited about it! Getting away from this awful British weather will be nice too!
    Just out of interest how long is the commute from Sai Kung to TST by car in the morning prob leave at 7.30am!
    :-))))


  6. #16

    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    6,076
    Quote Originally Posted by Poopoolala79:
    Getting away from this awful British weather will be nice too!
    Ha ha, it was a torrential rainstorm here today!
    dear giant likes this.

  7. #17

    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Tuen Mun
    Posts
    2,074

    Rather than just hit the "like" button for all the above responses - and they are all good - I'll reiterate the advice not to make ANY decision before you arrive. By all means search through photos of different areas on the net (not so much the estate agents' or developers' ones - they're highly likely to be photoshopped), but remember that they cannot show the whole area, or include the sounds and smells!

    You posted again while I was writing, so I'll change this para to say that I hope you don't expect "village" here to be anything like "village" anywhere in the UK and I hope you're not too nervous about the wildlife we have in our rural areas ... this is the tropics after all

    Last edited by chingleutsch; 20-05-2012 at 10:19 PM.

  8. #18

    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    1,966

    car park.

    Should be 30-40 minutes. Problem will be parking, Where is going to park and who will pay for it?

    Quote Originally Posted by Poopoolala79:
    Ahh thanks for your replys, we are looking at this move as an adventure and we are very excited about it! Getting away from this awful British weather will be nice too!
    Just out of interest how long is the commute from Sai Kung to TST by car in the morning prob leave at 7.30am!
    :-))))

  9. #19

    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Lancashire, UK
    Posts
    25

    Sorry I did read your reply about commute time being 30-40 mins is that say from 7.30am-8am and by car? Or is it quicker by bus?


  10. #20

    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    1,966

    bus

    I am not sure about the bus times. I presume it would take about same time. However you have to add the time from your home to the bus stop and again from the bus stop to the office.

    Quote Originally Posted by Poopoolala79:
    Sorry I did read your reply about commute time being 30-40 mins is that say from 7.30am-8am and by car? Or is it quicker by bus?

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